


Coma Berenices

by hazelwho



Category: due South
Genre: Community: ds_snippets, Gen, quest!fic, star-gazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-30
Updated: 2012-06-30
Packaged: 2017-11-08 21:42:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/447860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazelwho/pseuds/hazelwho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fraser and Ray K star-gazing on the quest. Can be seen as pre-slash if you've got the same pair of goggles I do, but is really gen.</p>
<p>Expanded version of a ficlet written for Challenge 19, 2012 on <a href="http://dsc6dsnippets.dreamwidth.org/">dsc6dsnippets</a> for the prompt <b>Ptolemy</b>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coma Berenices

Ray had never seen so many stars in his life as were visible every night of the quest, and he and Fraser had gotten in the habit of looking up at them after dinner. Fraser told the stories that went with the traditional constellations and Ray bullshitted stories to go with his flagrantly made-up constellations. Ray was surprised Fraser was cool with him making up his own constellations, but Fraser had just said something about how no one person’s naming of shapes in the sky was more valid than anyone else’s.

 

_“That bright star is Spica, and it forms the hand of Vigro, the maiden. Asteraea was the daughter of Juppiter…”_

_“That one there. It’s called Welsh’s Sandwhich. You can see the four bright stars that make the corners of the bread, and those lighter ones are the sesame seeds on the crust…”_

_“Those stars are known as the Four Advisors to the emperor found in the Purple Forbidden Enclosure of traditional Chinese asterism…”_

_“That one is called Shelby the Wonder Turtle, after the greatest hero of turtle-kind. The year, 1973. The place, Chicago…”_

 

They had been going on like that for a whole week, and Ray was just waiting for the day Fraser ran out of stars he knew. He was dying to see if Fraser would lie and make up new constellations (unthinkable), or admit he was out of stories (even more unthinkable). Ray thought he’d finally get an answer when Fraser opened with,

 

“That group there is known as Berenice’s Hair.”

 

Ray laughed. “Fraser! You have got to be making that up.”

 

“I assure you, Ray, Coma Berenices is a well-known constellation that can be found on any Western star chart. Berenice was the wife of King Ptolemy of Egypt. She was known for having the most beautiful hair in all the land. She hadn’t cut it since the day she was born and her hair came down in long waves.”

 

“Like Crystal Gayle?” Fraser gave Ray a blank stare, so Ray waved him on. “Sorry, keep going.”

 

“Berenice’s husband and son went off to war, and she promised the goddess Aphrodite that she would cut off her hair in sacrifice if they were returned safely to her. Sure enough, Ptolemy returned victorious and Berenice kept her word and cut off her locks and placed them on the altar. The next night, she went to visit the hair in the Temple of Aphrodite only to find that it was missing from the altar. She called the priest forward to explain just how he could have lost such an important gift.”

 

“Uh oh, busted,” Ray muttered.

 

“The quick-thinking priest told the queen that the lock was gone because the gods had accepted her offering. He took her outside and pointed up into the night sky at this constellation.”

 

“And that group of stars was just sitting there, with no name, waiting for some chick’s hair to get cut off?”

 

“Well, no. Those stars were originally part of the constellation Leo, making up the poof at the end of the lion’s tail.”

 

Ray laughed long and hard. “So that priest convinced a queen her hair had been magicked up into the sky when she was really looking at the back end of a lion?”

 

“Well, the priest probably saved his life with that deception. And, I think," Fraser smiled at Ray, "there is something to be said for putting a new name to something old and familiar.”


End file.
